Eye of Newt, and, er, Whole Live Frog

Good one for Hallowe’en this – although this actual story unfolded a month or so ago.

An Asda shopper in Roehampton apparently had a bit of a fright when she opened a bag of ready-washed rocket salad to find a live frog looking up at her. And she was equally miffed by the paltry offer of a £10.00 Asda voucher offered by way of compensation.

Now there are several aspects to this story. Firstly, this type of incident is hardly new - there have been a surprising number of such tales in the press in the last year or so.

Secondly, it is jolly reassuring to know that, for all the scare-mongering about what chemicals are sprayed on to pre-washed salad mixes (usually started by the same folk who express their sense of moral culinary outrage at what lazy sods we are becoming by buying the stuff in the first place), it can’t be that bad if our endearing little amphibian friends can survive the process. Why, a live frog in with yer lambs lettuce makes it as good as organic, we would’ve thought.

Thirdly, public reaction to such stories shows what namby-pambies we are all becoming. A bit of good old-fashioned dirt and even a dollop of pond-life used to be part of the fun of salad-making. To be fair the ‘victim’ on this occasion seems to have laughed at the matter, but we live in such a safe and sanitary world that the public are ever ready to hold their hands up in horror at the slightest sign of a bug, let alone a Freddie.

Instead of kowtowing to the compensation culture, Asda should really capitalize on this: ‘free main-course inside selected bags of salad’. But sadly Londonist doubts whether the rather dour and easily offended shopping public would see the funny side.